Gertrud

This was Carl Dreyer’s last film in his very small filmography, and it’s not exactly one of his most remembered efforts, at least not in the level of Passion of Joan Of Arc and Ordet. However, I believe it to be one of his better films, simply for the fact that, for what is basically a filmed play, it didn’t put me to sleep! Quite on the contrary, I was enthralled by the story and it’s characters. It deals with Gertrud, a woman who has lived and loved, who wishes to divorce her cold husband to marry a young composer, in hopes of regaining some sort of energy and youth. In the meantime she meets her first husband, poet Gabriel, and discuss their past. The story is basically about lost love and the urge for the new, as the lead character can sometimes be surprisingly cold and at others, very realistic. The movie is carried by the acting. Dreyer regular Nina Pens Rode plays Gertrud, and she’s very beautiful, enthralling, and believable. Something about her face, a mix of age and experience, makes you believe she really could go through everything. And when I said this was a filmed play, you better believe it. Dreyer directs it superbly, with extended long takes, some lasting ten minutes. All in all, this is one of the greatest works of art in cinema history by one of it’s greatest directors.